In nearly every class I teach, someone sheepishly confesses: “I have call reluctance.”

When I ask, “What do you mean?” it turns out to be anything from making the initial call to doing a follow-up call. And as soon as I ask “anyone else” I hear, “me too,” or “so do I” from what sound like relieved voices.

It seems that although many of us have this overgrown bully of a telephone, we are not any more comfortable admitting it than we are picking it up!

Yesterday Carol was the brave student in my Wednesday How to Be a Savvy Sponsor program who said, that her phone felt like it weighed 500 pounds and was stuck to the receiver. And then there was the chorus of “me too.”

When I ask why the reluctance the answers differ.

Some say, “I’m not sure what to say.” For others it is fear about what the other person will say. For a lot of you the answer is simply, “I don’t know, I’m just afraid.” But sooner or later it becomes evident that bottom line:

We fear we’re not going to get our intended result. That we will once again fail.

In a business that takes lots of calls to build success this is the kiss of death. It typically means we are not willing to “keep at it” long enough to build a sustainable business.

This is a big statement but you can break through this mind set. It will take some work on your part (but what doesn’t) but it is doable. Very doable.

Peggy, a student in another of my Savvy Sponsor programs is beginning to break through just this issue. And Peggy had a bad case of “call reluctance.”

But Peggy’s call reluctance and her fear is being replaced by curiosity.

Strange huh? But it is.

And it’s not that she’s suddenly “sponsoring all over place” but her approach is
totally different.

Take a look at the triangle below (or pyramid if you prefer ). (The work triange is borrowed shamelessly from Tim Gallwey’s The Inner Game of Work.

In order for this exercise to help you exchange your fear for curiosity we need to agree that enjoyment, learning and results are interdependent. In other words for your results (or performance) to be any good on the job (any job) you also need to be enjoying what you do and learning as you
do it.

That said, where do you think the most emphasis is placed in this triangle? If we go back to Carol and Peggy’s experience and that of most of us, the answer is simple….it’s all
about results.

But do you really have control over your results? Not usually. Even if you’re not dealing with someone else (like making calls in your business) but are simply dealing with yourself – say in a sport - or maybe a better example would be yoga.

How much control do you really have to make yourself perfect in each of your yoga practices? Right not much and it’s
your body.

But you do have control over how much enjoyment you put into your yoga practice. And you have control over how you reflect over your practice to learn more about your body and yoga techniques.

By the way, what do you think would give you the best results in a yoga practice?

(a) To be all uptight about how well or how long you can hold a pose – (results)
(b) To enjoy every moment of the exercise and be curious to see what you’ve learned about how your body is changing
and feeling?

100 points for the right answer.

Now let’s think about picking up that 500 pound phone
of yours.

What do you think would happen if you:

(a) Found way to make every call more enjoyable –
every call…
(b) Took a moment after every call to check out how you felt while you were dialing and when you were talking.

Imagine “debriefing” yourself, that is, checking in to see what you could learn about yourself and maybe what you learned about the person you were talking with. Do this often enough and you just might find that instead of angst over each call you’ll begin to feel like Peggy and be curious about the
next call.

Like most things this is easier (and more fun) if it’s done with someone else. So get with your teams and debate away. I promise, you phone will start to drop pounds.

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